Carl Milton Levin (born June 28, 1934) is an American attorney and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. He was the chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and is a member of the Democratic Party. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Levin is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. He worked as the General Counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964 to 1967, and as a special assistant attorney general for the Michigan Attorney General's Office. Levin was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1968, serving from 1969 to 1977, and was president of the City Council from 1973 to 1977. In 1978, Levin ran for the United States Senate, defeating Republican incumbent Robert P. Griffin. Levin was re-elected in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. On March 7, 2013, Levin announced that he would not seek a seventh term to the Senate. On March 9, 2015, Levin announced he was joining the Detroit-based law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.Levin became Michigan's senior senator in 1995. He is the longest-serving senator in the state's history, and was ultimately the fourth longest-serving incumbent in the U.S. Senate.